Sailing with the Moon

Intimate vocal and acoustic guitar with accompanied by understated bass and percussion. Includes three eco-anthems from the musical The Tree and Me as well as messages of peace, justice, love and creativity.

Track List & Lyrics

Sailing With the Moon

The evening cool awakens passing days elusive spirits
with no need for that sun’s hot-headed face.
They revel in the mystical and have no fear of shadow
for they know the darkness as a holy place.
Their nocturnal take on science is their personal defiance,
They play and love and morning comes too soon.
Laughing at the sun, Sailing with the moon.

She knows the Spring by blossoms scent, and the Autumn by the wind,
And knows you best by possibility.
She hears your heart in your voice and knows your mood in your step;
The grace of one who does not need to see, to see.
Cutting through the interference, unswayed by mere appearance.
With the sense to sense when all’s in tune.
Laughing at the sun, Sailing with the moon

Nothing We Haven't Seen Before

Nothing we haven’t seen before,
From covert conflict to open wars.
Area prone to domination,
Little hope for repatriation,
So much pain and so many tears
So the lessons can fall on deaf ears.

At what cost the war is won
It’s all over
But the revision’s just begun.

Everything looks different, but you’re just the same,
Still looking for someone else to blame.
Whispered words of what is fair
Drown in the silence of despair.
All wisdom and advice falls short of help
A mirror’s no use ’til you can recognize yourself.

You were tryin’ to find that flag of truce, even as the bridges burned.
It’s all over
But the second thoughts await their turn.

Without closure, the curtain’s drawn.
The wounded search for meaning, the proud move on
Dreams were dashed and trust was broken
Faith so bound in words unspoken.
Do you pick the rubble for what might have been?
No one in their right mind would want to feel that way again.

The clock waits to extract its toll
the credits fade
and the regrets start to roll.

So frustration found release
Did anyone remember to speak for peace?
Was it for law and order, that rights were wronged?
In the name of justice the war prolonged.
Yet through it all some greater love was grown,
And weren’t there moments beyond anything you’ve known?

So pack up your guilts and fears,
It’s all over
But the memories start here.

Plant More Than You Harvest

Plant more than you harvest, sun and water, earth and seeds.
Plant more than you harvest, give the earth all that it needs.
Plant more than you harvest, give the earth all that it needs,
The earth all that it needs.

Clear the meadows and the highways, but plant stout trees between.
Let the forests hold the hillsides, cover the earth with green.
Let the forests hold the hillsides, cover the earth with green,
Cover the earth with green.

Plant the grains to feed every woman man and child,
Some for all the beasts and birds, and some to just grow wild.
Some for all the beasts and birds, and some to just grow wild,
Some to just grow wild.

Plant more than you harvest, sun and water, earth and seeds.
Plant more than you harvest, give the earth all that it needs.
Plant more than you harvest, give the earth all that it needs,
The earth all that it needs.

Tall cedar and the spreading oak cool all that dwell below,
And the fallen trunk helps seeds reveal the secrets that they know.
And the fallen trunk helps seeds reveal the secrets that they know,
The secrets that they know.

Some seeds fall by the wayside, but some will make it through,
On the water or wind or a loving hand, the cycle starts anew.
On the water or wind or a loving hand, the cycle starts anew,
The cycle starts anew.

Plant more than you harvest, etc.

Pioneers

Pioneers – making our way in a hostile land
Aliens, keen to learn – waiting for the tide to turn
And more of us will come
Fortunate few – trade the old life for the new
Fountains of youth, mountains of wealth, freedom to speak and live for yourself
Opportunity wide as the sky. “Gonna get my piece of the pie.”
And more of us will come.

From the rock in Massachusetts Bay, following the Mohawk trail
Niagara and the Buffalo – Hungry eyes and faces pale
Western Reserve, Farmers and miners, Lewis and Clark and the Forty-Niners
Golden Spike, Trail of Tears, legacy of the Manifest years.

Pioneers – Making our way in a hostile land
Aliens, keen to learn – waiting for the tide to turn
And more of us will come

The Golan through the promised land, settlers – make our stand
Surviving the centuries of scorn. Now the desert blooms and is reborn
Protect our own with vigilant disdain – “They were nomads, they had no claim.”
” Never again! It’s our God given right.”
But hate is thrown, in bricks and stones, that turn to rockets in the night

Pioneers – making our way in a hostile land
Aliens, keen to learn – waiting for the tide to turn
And more of us will come
The chosen few – temper old ways with the new

Up from Xuahaca, ‘cross the Rio Grande
Over the parched hills in darkness,
through checkpoints undermanned
Swim from Tijuana, lose yourself in the crowd
Jump from the truck – guest worker,
stayed longer than allowed

Pioneers – elude the Immigration in a hostile land.
Aliens, keen to learn – waiting for the tide to turn
And more of us will come
From famine and war to peace and good health
Freedom to stand up, keep some for yourself
Pioneers – and more of us will come.

The Braided Rug

Spinning, bright spinning, the whole room across,
Telling the tales of triumph and loss.
Cycling, recycling a life’s love for me,
Treasures of childhood and family.
Fashioned the way that dreams are made:
Out from the center,
and follow the spiral dance of the braid.

The rug started quietly, when I was ten,
Traced my brother and me from boys into men.
A mother’s meditation, no need to work fast.
” We use what we have,” and we make it to last.

Short trousers and long, relatives’ hand-me-downs,
Rough woolen shirts and cozy nightgowns,
The grey suit I wore at the church in the pines
Singing “What Child Is This?”
It’s now part of the grand design.

Spinning, bright spinning, the whole room across,
Telling the tales of triumph and loss.
Cycling, recycling a life’s love for me,
Treasures of childhood and family.
Fashioned the way that dreams are made:
Out from the center,
and follow the spiral dance of the braid.

Pleasures and wonders, aspirations and tears
All woven together over some fifteen years.
Mom’s favorite red coat and my my olive green pants,
And the camel hair jacket from my first high school dance.

Haphazard donations from cousin or friend,
Too good to discard and too ragged to mend,
Now torn into strips and gathered in spools
And spun out in colorful chaos,
as she made her own rules.

The old Navy blue blanket, Dad’s checkered work shirt
Now tied up with burgundy, and over to flirt
With the teal and the grey of some old college clothes.
” Hey! Where is that overcoat? – Let’s see if Mom knows.”

On the outermost edge there’s the herringbone weave;
Grandfather’s best suit , until he took his leave,
With my “Abe Lincoln” greatcoat from the army sent home,
I thought she would mend it, but you know, I should have known.

Spinning, bright spinning, the whole room across,
Telling the tales of triumph and loss.
Cycling, recycling a life’s love for me, treasures of childhood and family.
Fashioned the way that dreams are made:
Out from the center,
and follow the spiral dance of the braid.

The Oneness of Everything

Jim Scott c 1988

Far beyond the grasp of hands, or light to meet the eye, past the reaches of the mind
There find the key to nature’s harmony in an architecture so entwined.
Like the birds, whose patterns grace the sky and carry all who join in love expanding,
The message of peace will rise in flight, taking the weight of the world upon its wings,
With the oneness of everything.

Peace is in the dance of trees who stir before the first breath of wind is yet perceived
Trust in the song, becoming one with the dance, and all mysteries can be believed.
Like the sorrow of the clouds, whose tears fall caring on the soil undemanding,
Lessons of love are giv’n that we might rejoice in the music they bring
Of the oneness of everything.

From the chords that sound of molecules, spinning billions to a cell, the call resounds afar,
To the sun who warms the dancing earth, and whose song holds it close on the journey of a star.
Songs of lives long past who touch our own are written in the earth forever giving.
And now to maintain the harmony gives to us all lives worth living
In the oneness of everything.

Still we seek to find a truth that we might understand, and reduce to terms defined
Vast and immeasurable time and space all so overwhelmingly designed.
Oh passing years, just might I know the faith that winters in the heart to be reborn in Spring.
To hear and to feel the pulse of life enters my soul as a song to sing,
Of the oneness of everything.

With Every Story Told

Tell me of all things sacred, held to be true
Beyond disappointments, pass to me memories
Hold for me images that can renew

Rescued or stolen from your life, share with me dreams
Of loves and ideals, of loss and of lessons
Of a world more forgiving than it sometimes seems – than it sometimes seems.

With every story told, our friendship becomes art.
Each passage of life is a gateway to the heart.
We are one in joy and sorrow and the music of our learning
Is danced in love and harmony with each day of earth’s turning

Open the secrets of awe and of laughter
Marked celebrations, small initiations,
That grew in their meaning forever after.
Save for me moments of pleasure and strife
Of rites of passage, of wounds and of healing,
Show me the feeling you know for life.

With every story told, our friendship becomes art.
Each passage of life is a gateway to the heart.
We are one in joy and sorrow, and the music of our learning
Is danced in love and harmony with each day of earth’s turning

Like a seed planted is memory shared
Walls will crumble when the soul is bared
With the courage to express an honest feeling
Our words have the power to find the healing

With every story told, our friendship becomes art.
Each passage of life is a gateway to the heart.
We are one in joy and sorrow, and the music of our learning
Is danced in love and harmonywith each day of earth’s turning

Winter to Spring

The breeze excites the branches with the sound of violins,
And rustles of percussion as the orchestra begins.
The sun ascends its platform like conductor with baton
awakening the players, for the music must go on.

Winter to Spring, Summer to Fall,
And may each of us experience a lifetime of it all.
Summer to Fall and Winter to Spring,
We are her to share the joy and sorrow all the seasons bring,
All the seasons bring.

The birds comprise the woodwinds, the great animals the brass,
And higher partials flit between the flowers and the grass.
In silent grace, the water folk surrender to their dance
Within their fluid theater, so as not to break the trance.

Winter to Spring, Summer to Fall,
And may each of us experience a lifetime of it all.
Summer to Fall and Winter to Spring,
We are her to share the joy and sorrow
all the seasons bring,
All the seasons bring.

From mud and water have we come to split the earth and sky,
The plants and fish, the birds and bees, and lately you and I,
To learn the dance of harmony and lessons all to share
Of love and living circles, rich with magic in the air.

Winter to Spring, Summer to Fall,
And may each of us experience a lifetime of it all.
Summer to Fall and Winter to Spring,
We are her to share the joy and sorrow
all the seasons bring,
All the seasons bring.